The nation’s science and engineering (S&E) workforce and public and private sector investments in research and development (R&D) are essential to continued economic growth, improvements in the standard of living, and progress on many important aspects of well-being, including safety and health. CNSTAT has conducted in-depth reviews of the portfolio of data collection programs of the National Science Foundation on S&E education and employment and R&D by the federal government, industry, and academia, seeking to make each survey more relevant, timely, and cost-effective. A just-completed study of indicators of science, technology, and innovation (STI) for the future identified priority measures for the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics to develop, modify, and highlight. STI indicators are vital to give policy makers a sense of how the United States compares with other countries and to help answer questions about the best use of government resources for bolstering the S&E enterprise. New CNSTAT studies are under way of R&D by the growing nonprofit sector and alternatives for redesigning the suite of S&E personnel surveys to adopt state-of-the-art data collection methods and make the best use of other data sources, including the American Community Survey.

An ad hoc panel, convened under the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT), in collaboration with the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP), proposes to conduct a study of the status of the science, technology, and innovation (STI) indicators that are currently developed and published by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). The major focus of the panel will be to assess and provide recommendations regarding the need for revised, refocused, and newly developed indicators designed to better reflect fundamental and rapid changes that are reshaping global science, technology and innovation (STI) systems. The study will address indicators development by NCSES in its role as a U.S. federal statistical agency charged with providing balanced, policy relevant but policy-neutral information to the President, federal executive agencies, the National Science Board, the Congress, and the public. The study will involve assessing the utility of STI indicators currently used or under development in the United States and by other governments and international organizations. Based on these activities, the study panel will develop a priority ordering for refining, making more internationally comparable, or developing a set of new STI indicators on which NCSES should focus, along with a discussion of the rationale for the assigned priorities. NCSES is particularly interested in the international scope of STI indicators and the need for developing new indicators that measure developments in innovative activities in the U.S. and abroad. The forward-looking aspect of this study is paramount; NCSES requests the panel’s foresight on the types of data, metrics and indicators that will be particularly influential in evidentiary policy decision-making for years to come. The panel will produce an interim report at the end of the first year of the study indicating its approach to reviewing the needs and priorities for STI indicators and a final report at the end of the study with conclusions and recommendations.

On February 3, 2012, the Panel on Developing Science, Technology, and Innovation Indicators for the Future, co-chaired by Robert E. Litan and Andrew W. Wyckoff, released its interim report “Improving Measures of Science, Technology, and Innovation: Interim report.”

“Improving Measures of Science, Technology, and Innovation: Interim Report examines the status of the NCSES's science, technology, and innovation (STI) indicators. This report assesses and provides recommendations regarding the need for revised, refocused, and newly developed indicators designed to better reflect fundamental and rapid changes that are reshaping global science, technology, and innovation systems. It also determines the international scope of STI indicators and the need for developing new indicators that measure developments in innovative activities in the United States and abroad, and offers foresight on the types of data, metrics, and indicators that will be particularly influential in evidentiary policy decision-making for years to come.”

April 14-15, 2011Project Overview, and Presentations from Users of STI Metrics and Indicators

Participant ListPublic Agenda (open session April 14 only)

July 11-12, 2011Workshop on Datasets, Frameworks, Methods, and Tools for Measuring STI Activities at National and Sub-National Levels, and for Developed and Developing Countries

Participant ListPublic AgendaSpeaker Biographical Sketches

September 26-27, 2011Presentations on the Conceptual Framework for STI Indicators and from Staff of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the U.S. Census Bureau, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Participant ListPublic Agenda (open session September 26 only)

February 7-8, 2012Discussion of Panel’s Interim Report, New Information on STI Indicators, and Panel’s Final Recommendations

Participant ListPublic Agenda (open session February 7 only)

April 11-12, 2012Discussion of Collection of Measures of Human Capitol in STEM, NCSES’ Use of Administrative Records, and International Comparability and Redundancies in STI Indicators